CoronaQuarantine, Day 52 / Birth Week 2020, Day Nine / Virtual Quarantini #9: Margaritatini / Virtual Quarantini #10: Blueberry Lemonade Tequilatini

Yesterday I had two of these "Birth Week Virtual Quarantini" video chats, the first time all week I doubled up in a day—and yet, even combined, the two calls together didn't even match the average length of one call on other days. I suppose it came close, though. Only when combined; each call yesterday was no more than an hour. I don't think the call with Claudia and Dylan (seen above) even made it to an hour. I still managed to get that photo album up to 26 shots, though, mostly because of the 19 shots I took before the call even started. Shobhit gave me a ride to the office on his way to work, so I could swap out receiver paperwork and then walk home. I took a bunch of pictures on that walk, detouring for a bit of shopping at the downtown Target along the way. I also took several photos from the office itself, though, including one I have long wanted to do: of me mingling with the cows in one of the huge wall photo murals. It went over pretty well on Facebook. And then, on the walk home, I got several new shots of cool boarded-over window murals on closed businesses. I only added seven shots to the photo album from during the actual call. We swapped some office gossip, and otherwise caught up with each other. It was nice to see her and get to hang out, even if it had to be virtually. As is the case, of course, with everyone. I had scheduled that call for 1 p.m. because I scheduled the second one at 4:00. This gave me enough to get that office visit and walk in, and even watch one more episode of the excellent miniseries The Plot Against America on HBO Go. I then had time to watch the six and last episode after Claudia and I finished the call. She showed off her homemade mask (made from fabric donated to her by another coworker who apparently makes all her own dresses) she was wearing for a "group call" walk outside, where they are all by themselves but on a party line to talk so it's like they're all exercising together. So then, at 4:00, I got a call from Sara W, the former coworker and good friend (and previously longtime Birth Week participant) who Shobhit and I visited in Denver last summer. I decided even then that I wanted to come and visit again in a couple of years, and the way this year is going with all "inessential travel" prohibited, I'm really hoping travel is much more of an option by summer next year and I can stick to this plan. I really want to go back and see her again. As it happens, both Claudia and Sara called me via Facebook Video Chat yesterday. That makes four of the total 11 video chats this week used on that platform. And guess what? I kept saying the Facebook video chat with Dad and Sherri on Tuesday was the first one I had ever done, and I was totally wrong! Sara herself actually called me on it just last March, and somehow I totally forgot. Not that this is in any way important at all. Anyway, the Sara full photo album features only 14 shots, making it the new shortest of the week, but that also means it has the least in the way of filler. Also, bear in mind, I separated photo sets between Claudia and Sara, but both were on the same day, so I actually took a total of 40 photos yesterday. And Sara really went out of her way to make the call fun, in a way nobody else had: she turned it into a kind of game, holding up cue-card-like signs every little while, so they were spread out over the course of the hour we were talking. The first one read, Did you know that birthdays are good for you? Studies show, the more of them you have, the longer you live. The second one was my favorite, and it read, I'm not saying you're old, but if you were milk, I'd sniff you before putting you on my cereal. HA HA! The third one read, I was going to send you a wad of cash but realized that just knowing me was enough of a gift. She added verbally to this one, "Doesn't that one remind you of you?" Ha! Indeed. The fourth one was hardest to read as it appeared to be written in highlighter pen, but I managed to decipher it as reading, Happy birthday to someone who's not completely annoying most of the time. That one was kind of odd, honestly, but hey, you can't win 'em all! Sara works for a much larger, national chain of natural foods grocery stores—not Whole Foods, though; this one's called Natural Grocers. She works at one of the stores and has been on leave in an attempt to avoid exposure as she's both older and has asthma. It's been extended twice though, currently through the end of May, and she doesn't think she can get it extended again without losing her job security. So she'll have to figure something out. She told me Colorado and especially Denver is currently one of the hotspots for the pandemic in the country. On the upside, even though she's 58, she's not quite in the "much more vulnerable" group above 60, and she's really healthy and exercises a lot. Speaking of which, just before I hung up with her, she had to show me the trampoline she took out of storage and put in her backyard. I got a fun video out of it. [posted 1:29 pm]